A firewall is a security system (hardware and/or software) that isolates resources of a computer system or network from objects outside of the system or network. Isolated resources are characterized as inside the firewall, and external equipment is considered outside the firewall. Typically, a firewall serves as a security enclosure around a private local area network (LAN) of computers and associated peripherals.
Generally, a firewall allows for inside objects to request and receive connections to outside objects (e.g. for inside applications to access outside internet nodes, etc.), but prevents outside objects from originating similar connections.
There are instances where it is desired to allow for objects outside a firewall to have access to inside resources, subject to restrictions that would not fully defeat the security purpose of the firewall. For example, it might be desirable to allow employees of a company owning resources inside the firewall to "telecommute" over public networks (such as the telephone network or that network and Internet points of access, etc.), from homes remote from their employer's place(s) of business (or from remote locations while on business trips or vacations). For that purpose then it would be desirable to permit such "trusted" individuals to be able to initiate access outside a firewall to resources inside the firewall (e.g. the employer's private databases, etc.).
To our knowledge, such access, in response to outside initiation or request, has been provided in the past by providing duplicate servers and database stores, both inside and outside the firewall, or by means of other arrangements that add considerable expense to maintenance of the firewall per se. Consider, for example, the costs of such outside duplication, or other process, in relation to massive and frequently updated databases stored inside the firewall. The present invention seeks to provide the desired outside access without unnecessary outside duplication of objects or resources inside the firewall.